W_L

https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2019-08-29/there-is-no-single-gay-gene This is a very interesting note, there has been wide debate for almost 3 decades since the human genome project on whether being "gay" is genetic? A study conducted on over half a million people may get us closer to the answer, which interestingly is a "mixed" bag. According to research into genetics, there are some genes that do have prevalence, but they are only about 8%-25% of our the population for same sex behavior,. Not all same sex behavior fall in line with this, which means according to the study, while genetic factors are influential, they do not predetermine sexuality. If these findings prove true through the test of time, I wonder what this may mean for gay/lesbian/bisexuals/queer people. It also raises a lot of intriguing question for the future: One of my biggest fears has always been that if genetics were the only reason we are non-heterosexuals, then there might be a threat to "cure" it like a genetic defect. If this is not a genetic defect per se, but a complex expression of human genetics and environmental factors, then there are 2 major points: 1. You cannot cure sexuality like a defective body part, and 2. Sexuality exists in a spectrum and you cannot easily label people. Also, the same can be said of heterosexuals, who have potential same sex attraction, you never know what a few things in life might open up. Anyway thought I would share this in the Lounge for open discussion

Thanks @Thorn Wilde, I'll do Andre Aciman "Call me by your name" next month I used my monthly credit on "Red, White, and Royal Blue" as it was the best seller on audible LGBT section, 1st chapter reads/listens like an episode of "West Wing" with a twist of modern input, political history/perspective and 21st century irreverence are a fun combination. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I do enjoy the backdrops and enjoy complex intrigues. It's one reason why I enjoy Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series, despite being fantasy, there's tons of political intrigue, scandal, and blackmail in the fantasy kingdom of Skala that the story is set.

I own the physical copies of Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series, along with the e-book versions. However, I decided to branch out once more and bought the audible versions. What took me 1-2 months to read in the past, I finished in a little over a week of continuous listening, while I was sick in bed. It's a mainstream 7 fantasy book series with LGBT lead characters, a novelty for the genre. (I also own Tamir Triad in print and e-book). Maybe audio isn't as visceral as reading it with your eyes, but in some ways, hearing a story has a certain kind of appeal as well. I checked the audible website there's only 3,125 LGBT titles, so it's a limited selection, sadly. Even reading at a good rate of 320 words per minute, a major feat for one eye, I can't sustain the speed for more than an hour before stopping. I wonder if anyone else has suggestions or a better way to read stories with more human-like synthesizers than what Microsoft offers? Does anyone else share my fondness for audio books? Is there a medium where I can find LGBT stories in audio?

2-0 US won over Holland, it's a consecutive win and 4th overall for women's soccer. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/07/sports/soccer/usa-vs-netherlands-score.html Beyond this victory, another victory for LGBTQAI+ is the fact that this is the 1st major sporting event, where both teams had a large contingent of "out" athletes in current roster. https://www.outsports.com/2019/6/11/18660301/out-gay-lesbian-bi-2019-women-world-cup-soccer

It's cool, I am happy to see St. Louis win Stanley cup. Boston fans aren't that crazy "must win" it all, we're satisfied with Football and Baseball this year, plus our huge trove of old basketball championships that no one, not even Jordan, could take. St. Louis lost a lot of things, they lost their basketball team in 1950's and Rams a few years ago, their city needed this win. Also, not to speak ill of my home team, but seriously if you can't win 3 games at home in the championships with game 7 on home ice, it's you're own fault. Congrats @Dabeagle on the win, I'll be rooting for the Cleveland Indians and San Diego Padres this year Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints for football I'll support my home team Bruins and Celtics though, they need all the help they can get.

Cool, I'm just playing around with the Zortrax M200 at work, they're Polish 3D Printer company. It's a little older now, but still usable

Awesome, I am partial to Mumbai curry myself I get heart burn, when I eat curry now, but it's worth every antacid. PS: @Thorn Wilde, take a look at the Mumbai Street Food scene, it's really cool. While I love food, I have resisted for a long time to open the floodgates of talking or writing about my food experience. I come from a family of cooks and restraunt workers. I love food and the most fun memories I had were around food. Wayne write that menu and if you need more recipes, I can offer up some Asian specialties for you.

That's really cool, adding personal melody to a story. I can't hit a note if my life depended on it, but a long time ago, I also attempted to write a song into a story. It was one part poetry and one part rap. Anyone here ever incorporate exotic foods and cuisines into their writing?

Question is when does sexuality manifests? Most kids don't have sexual preference or orientation immediately until puberty. I look at it as an innate trait, like people might be blond in their youth and maroon in their 30's. Using the hair color example, some people will try to mask their maroon hair with hair coloring products to stay blond just like gay guys might try maintaining a heterosexual relationship in order to avoid the "gay" label for their reasons, but you are who you are and that's the innate reality of you.

We all have various hobbies/interests beyond writing and reading, sometimes they become part of our writing or are what attracts us to certain authors. A hobby of mine is traveling and history, so I am attracted to museums and architectural works. Even though I only have limited 2D vision (you need a 2nd eye in order to create 3D vision), I love experiencing and touching things. Though the way I experience travel and history might be different than you guys: Things like the Mona Lisa, while I understand are aesthetically beautiful, to me are a long line with pushy people taking smartphone photos. In contrast, I can appreciate marble and bronze statues textural state by feeling them, though I try to avoid the parts I actually want to touch a little longer (anatomical correctness and all ). Renaissance statues are among my favorites, while I cannot touch the original David or Hercules, the models of their equivalence are extremely detailed and show the depth of work that original artists put into them. When I visited China, the Great Wall of China to me wasn't awe inspiring, unless you count the thousands of stairs up and down it to be inspirational, then yes for a fitness instructor or Rocky Balboa. However, the Forbidden Palace really was inspiring for the sensations like feeling the wooden beams, smelling the gardens, or imagining yourself either as the emperor, a court official, a eunuch, or even one of the thousands of women vying for attention and love of one man at the same time trying to maintain power and position against the other 999 women after the same things. The concept of palace intrigue may have many origins, but Dynastic China was where it was played to its peak, when after centuries of Darwinist selection, a single woman not only rose above all her peers, but eventually rose above all men in the country as an Emperor herself. That's one of my many hobbies

That's amazing, I wonder how he's able to control the other arm? I love robotics and prosthetic limbs are an important application, using legos as your base material is a cool idea with a few adaptive applications.

Sorry Jamie to hear about Lacey passing, RIP Lacey

0’s and 1’s Book 2: Web of Conceit Chapter 3 (Kevin Driscoll) The first step was the hardest to make, it’s kind of the way life is, right. Physical therapy sucks; I used to run pretty fast, even making the cuts to be part of our track team as a short sprinter. After the shooting, my legs feel like I’m carrying a ton of lead weights. It took me a week to stand up without issues, two weeks to take a few steps, and a month to be able to walk with crutches even at

I agree with your @Bill W sentiments. To me, it's kind of sad to imagine that if this were real alien probe, it could fall on deaf ears. Imagine this, an alien civilization, heard our radio signals from 100 years ago, then sent a probe to our solar system with the best technology they can manage in order to verify that we were here; I would honestly feel touched. They can't go to warp speeds, beam people up, or make science magic, but they still sought to answer that question: Are you out there? May be they're technologically advanced than us by a few decades (Solar Sails are feasible at the moment, advanced power systems for long range probes have been around since Voyager probes, and we can find earth like planets with our telescopes so we know where to send it), but it shows something far more important that an alien species can pool together resources and do something like this, they're far better than we are as evolved species. We can't even maintain joint space missions or an international space station without egos and national pride getting in the way. Maybe, it's better for them if they know we exist and we deny their existence; we might end up sending an invasion force under the pretense they violated our stellar space.

I had originally thought of starting this topic in Science and Tech, but the impact of this idea would go beyond our current science, if it were true. Then I considered, maybe I should limit this topic to the Pit, since there are so many big questions this raises that could cause debates, but it's not really an issue of ideology, rather its controversy comes from human perspective. So this topic is probably best suited for general lounge and for prospective authors out there, I can't imagine a better way to excite your muse than a potential groundbreaking discovery that would actually be taken directly from Carl Sagan's Contact. As the theme of GA's prompt is "Into the Stars", take flight with this potential discovery. (I know mine has as I am preparing an entry) https://www.boston.com/news/national-news/2019/02/05/harvard-avi-loeb-aliens https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/science/ct-harvard-astronomer-aliens-20190204-story.html Think of it, if this really is an alien vessel and it could be proven, either empirically that its acceleration is artificial, or via observation that would remove the potential as stellar matter/asteroid/comet alike, then wouldn't this be the greatest discovery in human history? The discovery of fire, agriculture, irrigation, engineering, atomic energy, and genetics would be footnotes compared to such an event in human history. Then again, would mankind be afraid to know this truth, deny that it's a reality, and try to forget that we ever made contact with another civilization. Carl Sagan suggested the latter as much in his science fiction/speculative fiction book, Contact, which left readers with the impression that while we may not be alone; mankind preferred our isolation in the cosmic scheme than be merely one species among many others. I always wondered how would people respond to such a discovery if it were to happen in my lifetime; maybe Sagan was right or maybe he was too pessimistic of humanity. Only time will tell.

You knew this would the song at the moment for me!

I love that! That reminds me of something, my English teacher came into our literature class (we could do both as seniors in high school) and we had prepared questions to ask about books we had to read throughout high school. It was on the topic of critically evaluating books we studied. Our questions were meant to be part of a critical review for stories, we had read. It's kind of like high school kids getting our reviews in for books we had to suffer. I had one question in particular: "Is there merit reading "Goodbye Mr. Chips" versus any of the thousands of other stories with similar settings and plots as students?" My Literature teacher hated "Mr. Chips" and my English teacher loved it, so it set them off on a debate, on whether the story is for students or self-aggrandizement for teachers, who teach old English literature. No one else had anywhere near the fireworks my question sparked between those 2, I got an A from both of them, because my question and the critical review later not only challenged a reader's interpretation of an author, but also the interpretation itself from established source.

I should get into your writing. I am the opposite, I try to say as much as possible with more technical knowledge than can fit into a chapter. I wonder what drives writing styles? Are authors attracted to a genre or genre attracts an author?

Right now, I am reading The Burning World by Isaac Marion If you have read, Warm Bodies, or seen the movie, it's basically a very interesting philosophical novel series involving zombies and human beings. It's a very good philosophical series about the concepts of existentialism, humanism, and the issues of "meaning". Who are we as individuals? Where are we going as a civilization? We're not that different from zombies of fiction: focus on brains for knowledge without intelligence, herd mentalities with directions given to us by people of authority, and in the end, we're all searching for a "reason without a cause". In the newest novel, the protagonists from the other two books have reformed human society on a small scale, but they are confronted with new truths and realize there's more in the world than their small circle of it. It's an epic road trip that is a great social commentary on United States of today and humanity's potential doom. After this book, I'll be reading the next sequel: The Living, which completes the series of 4 books

I am a big football and Basketball fan, with a little sprinkling of Hockey (I did win GA's hockey 1x ) Something I have noticed in recent years, a lot of sports stars have kids, who also play the same sport. The thing though is that there are comparisons between their fathers and their abilities: In college basketball, I was following both of Michael Jordan's sons as they progressed in the NCAA, hoping to see them get into NBA at some point. However, neither, Marcus nor Jeffrey Jordan, showed any strong drive and they were never drafted. In football, the best family legacy is the Manning family of course with Archie, Peyton, and Eli (As I Patriots fan, I have to say "Damn your seed, Archie!", but as a football fan I am really impressed by their ability) Still not every son follows in their father's footsteps in terms of equal performance, Look at Simms' kids (Nope, no "The sims", but Phil Simm's former QB of NY Giants and super bowl 21/25 winner). Both Chris and Matt Simms have had crappy careers as backups or practice squad benchwarmers with lackluster performances, when they were called up to play. The NFL actually has a ranking for these comparisons of Fathers and sons http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000937380/article/the-2018-nfl-fatherson-rankings And then the future, if Tom Brady's photos of his two sons: John and Ben are any indication, we might be seeing the start of a new cycle. Will they be even greater than the Manning kids? (God I hope so and I'd be okay with John starting and Ben backing up as Patriots, then alternating ) Or will they be like the Simms, good on paper, lackluster in reality. ------------------- Ultimately for me, as sports fan, I think we should let their kids be kids. Yes, if they do play the sport, they can't avoid comparisons to their fathers, but until they do, just enjoy the ride. Jordan's kids played and couldn't reach the NBA, Simms' kids played and reached the NFL, but have had crappy careers with almost nothing to show for it, and Archie Manning's kids are considered all-time greats, even though I hate Peyton and Eli.

Well, I'll start and this was right after I finished Book 1 of 0's and 1's: I shared this with @Kitt as well, because she deserves part of the praise. Writing a story is one part writer and one part editor/beta reader. Most of you know my grammar and typos are atrocious, but my ideas are interesting and thought provoking with grounded reality to what is "possible" within the realm of conspiracies and human nature. From: xxx Sent: Friday, September 9, 2016 9:15 PM To: xxx Subject: "Zeros and Ones" Dear WL, I just discovered your story "Zeros and Ones". What a great story line! I had a hard time putting it aside to get other things (like eating) attended to. I also want to commend you and/or your proofreaders. I'm a picky reader and my eye/brain often spot incorrect words (typos that happen to get by the spellchecker) or grammatical errors. I have served as a proofreader for some other stories. I saw practically no errors in your story. I liked the philosophical debates between the characters, and the different personalities and approaches they each contribute. Jesse seems a bit unbelievable as a 12 year old, but I liked him anyhow. Hope he continues to have a role in Book 2. Is Book 2 available yet? Maybe on a different site? Bad enough to leave us hanging at the end of Book 1 -- sure hope the story hasn't ended there. One more question: This is just fiction, isn't it? It's an awfully scary, but believable plot. You don't actually have any knowledge of a C.I.S.S. type group, do you? Stan -------------------------- This was hands down, when I knew I had created an interesting story and needed to keep going into book 2.

You and I are probably the 2 most active blind members of GA Another very cool system that has been developed, with me as a guinea pig along with other low vision/blind volunteers, is a 3D Camera for blind navigation https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/visually-impaired-3d-camera-haptic-feedback/ MIT has been working for years now on several projects geared at helping the blind by using tactile interface and 3D imaging advancements found in driver-less cars currently in testing. It's like having a different set of eyes, giving you feedback and telling you what's walk-able or not, simple object identification, and figuring depth. You should try walking in your own home with a blindfold, (make sure you put away anything sharp or dangerous of course), it would help you understand how people with low vision or completely blind navigate. I know sighted friends, who get new appreciations for their surroundings by trying it. Plus, I also think Netflix basically stole some of the concept with their movie "Bird Box"

We bought 2 3D printers back in 2017 and 2018 at my work respectively, along with several metal/pastic mold attachments. Like you @Myr, my context is an industrial use 3D printer, but it's more for engineering pieces than mass production. An issue with mechanical parts is that you won't know how specs would operate in live environments for small runs, like say a key or piece for electronic devices. A few micons could make the difference between years of use or a few weeks of frustration. I am a finance guy, but I also respect engineers for what they do. In the old days, these pieces would go out to machine shops and be tested, but in New England and many parts of US, we no longer have active machine shops with technicians, who know how to do small sample testing. Yes, it is true, you can mass manufacture with a prototype piece, but getting the right specs out is much more difficult. A holy grail I think in 3D printing to make it an alternative to automated assembly line production is going to be concurrent process management, if you can have a 3D printer work on many pieces at the same time, assemble at different points of completion into subassemblies, then configure sub-assemblies to be put together into assemblies, and the shell mold is seamlessly integrated, then the idea of Star Trek like "Replicators" would be possible. (I glossed over the deeper concepts in my 1st book of 0's and 1's, but basically that's what you need for more advanced items)

I don't have to serious all the time Some days, I think lighter topics are also interesting I realize recently, there's an ad campaign that has been under the radar for years now. Most of us have tried the chocolate, and seen a few of the commercials without paying much notice. M&M's are a fixture of chocolate candies and they're also characters in numerous ads representing different personalities and walks of life. So what's your favorite flavor and which M&M do people identify with:? For me, I am more of the orange M&M, either slightly paranoid or dorky depending on my moods (Today, I feel extra dorky especially with this topic on a candy) Flavor wise, I prefer the Blue Almond M&Ms, something about milk chocolate and almonds just hits the spot for me. How about you guys and gals?